Guidance choosing Report Server 6i or Oracle9i Reports ???

Hi.
This is a request for information and/or opinions really.
The company I work for want to extend the current Oracle facilities by providing enhanced reporting features, statistics, and analysis of existing databases. ( NB: we have several Oracle Databases at various versions on Sun Solaris and Linux )
We will shortly be upgrading to 8.1.7, possible to 9i mid next year!
My questions are :-
Is Oracle Reports Server 6i or Oracle9i Reports the way to go as opposed to developing in-house reporting facilities?
What requirements exist for Oracle Rpt Server 6i as opposed to Oracle9i Rpts, ie is 9i Reports backwards compatible with 6i? and is it also compatible with Oracle Server 8.1.7 Ent Edition ?
Any answers,opinions or links to URL's that could save me a lot of legwork or save me getting the runaround from Oracle Sales would be appreciated.
Regards

Hi Andrew,
You asked for some opinions, so here goes... :)
The company I work for want to extend the current Oracle facilities by providing enhanced reporting features, statistics, and analysis of existing databases. ( NB: we have several Oracle Databases at various versions on Sun Solaris and Linux )
We will shortly be upgrading to 8.1.7, possible to 9i mid next year!
My questions are :-
Is Oracle Reports Server 6i or Oracle9i Reports the way to go as opposed to developing in-house reporting facilities?Depends on your requirements. (Boring, standard and sort of meaningless answer, I know ;)) E.g. What kind of information do you want to "dig out", presentation formats, distribution demands... "analysis" sounds more like Discoverer and/or 9i DB analythical functions.
What requirements exist for Oracle Rpt Server 6i as opposed to Oracle9i Rpts, ie is 9i Reports backwards compatible with 6i? and is it also compatible with Oracle Server 8.1.7 Ent Edition ?If you have the chance (given business requirements, standards, existing investments, database server versions, hardware availability, license costs, etc.) to choose newer and supported versions (i.e. 9i), go for the "9i" version. Upgrading to 8.1.7 and later 9.x.x seems like one bit towards that.
BUT you should be aware that Reports is nowadays, so called, integrated with the 9i AS package. In my experience, AS is more demanding than the previous 6i (different architecture, bigger installation, a lot of running servers/processes, more things to manage). On the other hand, the software infrastructure which is AS can be used in delivering a lot of different applications (compared to "simple" Reports reports). With Certified Configurations and thelike, perhaps a complete, tested and supported sw&hw solution could be less expensive (but this I haven't tried yet).
Hth,
Fredrik

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Note:204538.1
Subject: Common Reasons & Troubleshooting: "Unable to communicate with the Reports Server"
Type: BULLETIN
Status: PUBLISHED
Content Type: TEXT/X-HTML
Creation Date: 22-JUL-2002
Last Revision Date: 08-MAR-2005
PURPOSE
========
The main purpose of this document is to list the known causes of the "Unable to
communicate with the Reports Server" error. The terms Reports Server, CGI,
Reports Servlet are also described briefly for a better explanation of this error scenario.
This document includes the following sections :
I. Brief summary on the architecture of Reports Server, CGI and Reports
Servlet
II. Sources of errors encountered when running a report with Reports Server
III. How the CGI (or the Reports Servlet) communicates with the Reports
Server
IV. Possible reasons which lead to "Unable to communicate with the Reports
Server" error.
1) Reports Server is up and running
2) tnsnames.ora and sqlnet.ora problems
3) Effect of parameter "ORACLE_HOME"
4) Effect of parameter "maxconnect"
5) Passing very large parameters to reports server
6) A case specific to OAS 4.0.8.2
7) A case specific to WEBDB version 2.1.0.9.3
V. References
I. Brief summary on the architecture of Reports Server, CGI and Reports Servlet
=================================================================================
In order to understand the causes of the error "Unable to communicate with the
Reports Server", let's first briefly review the Reports Runtime Engines, Reports
Server, the Reports CGI, and Reports Servlet architecture.
There are 4 important layers in Reports Server architecture which should be
understood in order to clearly understand the error "Unable to communicate with
the Reports Server" :
1) The Runtime Engines : This is the main layer where the reports are actually
executed. On unix systems there are "rwrun60" and on NT systems there are
"rwrun60.exe" processes.
2) The Reports Server : The Reports Server recieves the job request and queues
it. When one of its runtime engines becomes available, it sends the
command line to that runtime engine for execution. On Unix systems it is
the "rwmts60" executable and on NT systems it is "rwmts60.exe".
3) The Reports CGI : The Reports Web CGI passes the request to the Reports Server.
The Reports CGI or Servlet converts the request to a command line that can be executed by the Reports Server and
submits it to the specified Reports Server. On Unix platforms this executable
is "rwcgi60" and on NTs it is "rwcgi60.exe.
4) The Reports Servlet : Its functionality and function is just the same as "Reports CGI", but it is
a program written in Java as difference to the CGI program (which is
written in C programming language).
The Reports Server may be running on the same server with the CGI program (or
servlet) OR may reside totally on another machine which does not necessarily have
the same Operating System. For instance CGI may reside in a Windows NT machine
while the Reports server may reside on a Unix box, or any other combination with
Unix-Linux-NT-2000, etc.
The reports are called with a URL similar to below with the CGI :
http://fully.qualified.server.name:PORT/dev60cgi/rwcgi60.exe?server=<REPSERVER>&other_parameters=...........
where fully.qualified.server.name is the name of the server where the Reports CGI
reside, and <REPSERVER> is the name of the server.
II. Sources of errors encountered when running a report with Reports Server
============================================================================
The Reports Web CGI (or the Reports Servlet) makes a call to the Reports Server
and asks it to place the output into some destination (defined by DESTYPE and
DESNAME parameters), then gives back the necessary response to the calling
program. For example if the DESTYPE is "cache", then the Reports server generates
the report to a file in a temporary place and gives it back to CGI and the CGI gives
it back to the calling program. Otherwise, if the DESTYPE is "file", the Reports Server
generates the report output to the requested file and the CGI replies back the
following message : "Report output was successfully written to requested
destination.".
If there is any error in this process, the related error message is returned. The
possible sources of errors can be categorized as follows :
1) The errors that are returned from Reports Server; like the Reports Server can
not find the requested RDF file or the report may be run to file and the
directory where the reports output is asked to be placed does not occur or
similar errors. (Usually the REP-XXXX errors)
2) Another possible cause of error is the errors returned by the RDBMS to the
Reports Server, for example a table not found error or things like that. Of
course from the CGI point of view these errors are again transmitted from the
Reports Server but in fact the error originates from the RDBMS. (Usually the
ORA-XXXX errors)
3) Another possible cause of errors is the CGI itself, for example when the CGI
executable can not connect to the requested Reports Server, then we get the
famous "Unable to communicate with the Reports Server". In this document we will
diagnose the common reasons of this last error.
III. How the CGI (or the Reports Servlet) communicates with the Reports Server
===============================================================================
Having said that "Oracle Reports Server CGI - Unable to communicate with the
Reports Server." error is returned back from the CGI itself, let's discuss the
issue of how the Reports CGI connect to the Reports Server. The name of the
Reports Server given in the URL with "server=....." parameter is, in fact, just
a special tnsnames alias, similar to aliases for database connect strings. As it is
important for the CGI to resolve the alias, the CGI needs to know the HOST name (or the
IP) of the machine where the Reports Server is running and the port on which the
Reports Server is listening. So a typical Reports Server alias is defined as follows :
REP60_<MACHINE>=(ADDRESS = (PROTOCOL = tcp)(HOST = <MACHINE>)(PORT = <PORT>))
This is defined in tnsnames.ora file, and the sqlnet.ora file is also used in
the name resolving operation.
IV. Possible reasons which lead to "Unable to communicate with the Reports Server" error.
==========================================================================================
The possible reasons for the "Unable to communicate with the Reports Server" error :
1) Reports Server is up and running :
Make sure that the Reports Server is really running on the specified server
and listening on the specified port. For details have a look at above
explanations for tnsnames alias of the reports server. And because of this the
CGI could not establish a connection to the Reports Server.
2) tnsnames.ora and sqlnet.ora problems :
As described above, the CGI resolves the details for the reports server using
the "tnsnames.ora" and "sqlnet.ora" files. There may be a problem with them,
here are the possible configuration problems :
a) There is no alias in the tnsnames.ora file for this Reports Server
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installation. Please note that in a typical 9iAS 1.0.X installation there
are two ORACLE_HOME's, one is for the iAS and the other is for the tools,
usually the home for the tools is a directory with name "806" on NT and
"6iserver" on unix systems. By defining TNS_ADMIN in the environment, one
can override the search path for these two files.
The TNS_ADMIN variable can be defined in one of the following places :
i) In the environment : On MS Windows platforms check the "Settings
--> Control Panel --> System". On NTs check the environment TAB and in
Win2K systems check the "Environment Variables" button on Advanced tab.
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file for Apache server is "httpd.conf" file which resides in
$IAS_HOME/Apache/Apache/conf directory. In this file there is a line to
include "oracle_apache.conf" and in this "oracle_apache.conf" file
there is a line to include "$ORACLE_HOME/conf/6iserver.conf" file. And
in this file the TNS_ADMIN variable could be defined as follows :
SetEnvIf Request_URI "rwcgi60" TNS_ADMIN=c:\orant\network\ADMIN
Please note that by defining it this way, the TNS_ADMIN will only be defined
for "rwcgi60" calls, so the other parts of the 9iAS will not be affected by
this setting.
c) In sqlnet.ora the "names.default_domain" is set but in tnsnames.ora the
domain is not defined in the alias description. For example if the
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then in the "tnsnames.ora" the alias of the reports server should also have
the ".world" extension appended at the end. And another cause is of course
the vice versa for this. If there is no "names.default_domain" is defined
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is not present, so if the "tnsnames.ora" file is present in TNS_ADMIN directory
but the alias is not present, then the other directories are not checked at all.
Let us assume that the tnsnames.ora file is present in the TNS_ADMIN directory but
there is no "sqlnet.ora" files here, then the sqlnet.ora file is checked in
$ORACLE_HOME/net80/admin directory, which could cause the same problem if the
"names.default_domain" is defined in this file.
All the above will result in, CGI to unable to resolve the alias in tnsnames.ora
file so it will not be able to establish a connection to the Reports Server.
3) Wrong "ORACLE_HOME" setting :
Wrong ORACLE_HOME setting. This is usually the case for Reports Servlet,
because the environment settings are defined in "jserv.properties" file for the
servlets and the setting here will effect both the Reports Servlet and the
setting for Oracle JSP and other servlets. So the other servlets or Oracle JSP
may need to set ORACLE_HOME to home of HTTP server while the reports server needs
it to be set to the TOOLS_HOME directory. In this case the best alternative is
not to set ORACLE_HOME in this directory and leave it to registry or defined the
ORACLE_HOME in "6iserver.conf" file just like the TNS_ADMIN defined above. For
details please have a look at the following document :
Note 179609.1 "Getting an error Unable to communicate with the Reports Server
using RWSERVLET"
4) Effect of parameter "maxconnect" :
Another common case for this error is that the CGI request reaches the Reports Server but
the Reports Server refuses connection. The main cause for this case is, that the Reports Server
configuration parameter "maxconnect" is defined too low, there are long running reports on the
server or the server is too busy at that time. Usually a second try some
later time results in a successful connection. If this is the case, the end user
may think that the problem is occasional. For details on this case please
have a look at the following document :
Note 125265.1 "Unable to communicate with the Reports Server"
5) Passing very large parameters to reports server :
Another known reason for this error is, if you are passing large parameters
to the Reports Server which exceeds sqlnet transmission blocks then the request may
end up with this error. To test it try with small parameter values. If you hit
this case, the solution is to increase the SDU (Session data unit size) and the TDU
(Transport unit data size) parameters in tnsnames.ora file, for details please
have a look at the following document :
Note 197358.1 "Passing large parameters to Reports show up a Reports Server
error"
6) A case specific to OAS 4.0.8.2 :
If you are using OAS instead of iAS, and the error appeared after
upgrading to 4.0.8.2 then this is caused because the 4.0.8.2 is using RSF
(Required Support Files) version 8.1.6 and the Reports 6i is using 8.0.6 and the
two could not reside in the same ORACLE_HOME directory. So the solution for this
problem is to create a new batch file and use it from which the actual CGI
executable is called. For details please see the following document :
Note 116754.1 "After applying OAS 4.0.8.2 CGI and Cartridge cannot communicate
to report server"
7) A case specific to WEBDB version 2.1.0.9.3 :
Another known case for this error is with WEBDB version 2.1.0.9.3 or less.
If you are using these old versions of WEBDB as HTTP listener, please have a
look at the following document :
Note 95426.1 "URL Not Found When Calling Oracle Developer Report from WebDB Site"

On Windows you can create a Report Services:
rwserver -install server=repserverYou have to choose different names for all servers, like your collegue cannot create a server with the same name. You can start/stop this Report server in Services (control panel). Configuration files can be found under $ORACLE_HOME/reports/conf
Martin

Guidance choosing Report Server 6i or Oracle9i Reports ???

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